What has Tommy Robinson done?
- 1982: Born in the working class town of Luton, Bedfordshire
- 2003: Robinson was fired from his engineering job at Luton Airport for punching an off-duty police officer during a drunken row
- 2009: He co-founded the English Defence League claiming the activist group was opposed to the spread of “militant Islam”.
- 2011: Robinson was convicted of using “threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour" during a 100-man fight between football supporters in Luton.
- Following that conviction, he was ordered to complete 150 hours of community service and banned for three years from attending football matches.
- In September, he was arrested again at an EDL demonstration in East London after being banned from attending the protest as part of his bail conditions.
- While being held in custody at HM Prison Bedford, the controversial activist went on hunger strike reportedly claiming to be a “political prisoner of the state" while refusing to eat food he believed was “halal”.
- He was released before his trial, but was then convicted of common assault on September 29, after headbutting an EDL member at an event in April in Blackburn in north west England.
- Robinson was handed a 12 week sentence which was suspended for 12 months.
- In November of that year, he was arrested at Fifa headquarters in Zurich after protesting a decision to stop the England football team wearing poppies on their shirts.
- He was jailed for three days and fined £3,000.
- 2012: In October, Robinson was arrested after entering the United States illegally using another person’s passport.
- 2013: In January, he was sentenced to 10 months in jail for his passport fraud conviction.
- On February 22, he was released but was ordered to wear an electronic tag.
- 2014: He was jailed for 18 months for committing mortgage fraud.
- After being released on parole, he was recalled to prison in October 2014 for breaching the terms of his licence before he was scheduled to talk at the Oxford Union.
- He was released again in November 2014
- 2017: Robinson was captured on film repeatedly punching a man in the head at Royal Ascot.
- 2018: The activist was banned from Twitter on March 28 for breaching the social media platform's "hateful conduct" policy.
- Robinson was jailed for 13 months for contempt of court on May 25.
Why was he jailed in May 2018?
Robinson
was jailed for 13 months for contempt of court on May 25, 2018 - but the world only learnt about it several days later.
He was first arrested on suspicion of breaching the peace by streaming a video outside Leeds Crown Court.
Robinson admitted committing contempt of court by publishing information that could prejudice an ongoing trial.
He was already on a suspended sentence for a previous contempt offence in Canterbury last year - and been told that another offence could land him in jail.
His sentence wasn't reported on initially because of a reporting restriction that has now been overturned after reporters successfully challenged the restriction.
The judge who sentenced Robinson told him his actions may cost taxpayers "hundreds and hundreds of thousands of pounds".
His arrest sparked a mass protest outside Downing Street as supporters called for his release, with the slogan #FreeTommy.